docs: install on win needs help

[Carl Karsten <carl@…>]

​http://www.djangoproject.com/documentation/install/
'install on win' not very good:

it would help to link to
​http://code.djangoproject.com/wiki/WindowsInstall

So that as we help people on irc, we can collect notes on what things need to be addressed.

like: install python, add python to PATH, install subversion, dl django, add d-admin.py to path... stuff that would be handy if it was on a wiki so that it doesn't require this levl of trac item.

[Simon G. <dev@…>]

Sounds like a good idea - can you patch the install docs?

[nick@…]

This relates to #3902, for which a patch is awaiting check-in.

Is it worth modifying that patch to include a link to ​http://code.djangoproject.com/wiki/WindowsInstall, do you think?

[Nick Efford]

A very minor tweak should do the trick, so I'll take care of this...

[Nick Efford]

Addition of link to Installing on Windows wiki page

[Adrian Holovaty]

Simply linking to the wiki page is a cop-out. What we really ought to do is clean up the wiki page and roll it into the official docs. Are you willing to take that on?

[Nick Efford]

Yes, I'll work on it.

[Nick Efford]

OK, I'm attaching a revised patch - if Adrian or someone could look over it (probably best to look at the patched install.txt rather than the patch file itself :) that would be cool.

The wiki page was basically just links to other, mainly external, resources. I've summarized the info from these sources, added one or two other bits and pieces and folded it all into install.txt. I've tried to keep it reasonably balanced, so that install.txt doesn't become Windows-centric. If you think more is necessary, we could create an additional install-windows.txt and maybe ask John Mulligan if we could include the entire contents of his ​walkthrough, but I think I've captured the essential info (without the screenshots :)

The wiki page also link to another wiki page on getting Django working with IIS and SQL Server. I've not folded this info in because the procedure seems to be experimental and limited to specific versions of Django and Python. Instead, I've included a link to that wiki page and a plea for help.

I hope this all sounds reasonable.

[Nick Efford]

Revised version of patch to install.txt

[James Bennett]

#5688 was duped for this.

[Nick Efford]

The now-closed #5688 suggested that setup.py install typed at the command line will not work, and that it is actually necessary to type python setup.py install. To test this, I uninstalled Python from my Windows XP SP2 machine and checked the PATH environment variable to make sure it didn't include the Python installation folder. Then I reinstalled the standard Python 2.5.1 MSI package from www.python.org, accepting all of the default options.

After going through this process, the Python installation folder is not in my path, so entering python at the command line doesn't work. However, I can run Django's setup.py just by typing its name. On this basis, I propose that we leave things as they are.

I'm also unchecking "Patch needs improvement" to flag that the patch has been improved since it was last examined by a core developer :)

[livingstone.paul@…]

I'm going to prefix this with the fact that I'm a total Python newbie... so bare with me.

On installing Python 2.5.1 MSI package on Windows XP SP2 and downloading the latest official release of Django (0.96.1), I was unable to install Django by simply running 'setup.py install' from the Django-0.96.1 directory. I would always get an error saying something about the /django directory not existing.
Running 'python setup.py install' didn't work either, as Windows wouldn't even recognise just 'python'. It didn't understand what 'python' was!

It was not until I manually added 'c:\python25' to my PATH environment and ';.PY;.PYW' to my PATHEXT variable, that I was able to successfully run 'python setup.py install' and actually install Django.

I hope this helps someone else.

[livingstone.paul@…]

Also, if you don't have 'c:\Python25\Scripts' in your PATH variables too... you won't be able to run 'django-admin.py' at any point either. This really should be outlined in the Windows installation instructions.

[Joshua Russo]

Is there any reason this has not been included?

[Karen Tracey]

The patch will need to be brought up to date if someone wants this included in 1.2. The documentation has been restructured since that patch was made and docs/install.txt no longer exists, I believe the beginning content is now in docs/topics/install.txt. I think parts of what were on that page have also been moved to other pages, and some of the content has changed (e.g. mod_python is no longer the recommended plugin for Apache, and there are specific pages for deployment that would be more appropriate for some of the recommendations in the patch). I'm also a bit concerned that some of the information/pointers have gotten out of date by now, so updating the patch should also involve verifying that the information is still correct. Finally on a quick read-through of the patch I'm a little worried it changes the install instructions to be a bit too Windows-centric; it seems like every other sentence has a special-case for Windows. I'm not sure that's entirely necessary or good. I just don't recall that many Windows install questions coming up on django-users lately (don't hang out on django IRC so can't comment on that one), so I am not sure there is as much of a problem here as there may once have been (there did used to be some pretty weird install bugs with Django on Windows, but they have been fixed).

[Joshua Russo]

It sounds like this is trying to fix something that's not broken. Should we just set this as closed as a non-issue, seeing as the current docs are not raising questions to warrant a big over-hall?

[Joshua Russo]

I say we close this ticket to clean up the clutter and because it's not based on the current docs. If there is a real issue with the current docs a new ticket should be created.

[Jacob]

Milestone 1.2 deleted